The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology recently expressed a stance to deny Happy Science’s spiritual messages as learning. How would Socrates, whose ideas and approach established a foundation for Western studies, look at this issue? Master Okawa recently asked him.

A Philosophy, Which Seeks Goodness, Lies at the Root of All Moral Explanations

The Council for University Establishment (in Japan) and the School Corporation has finished compiling a report that provides reasons to disapprove the establishment of Happy Science University. In the report, the Council defined learning as the knowledge and methods, which it has already systematized, based on certain sets of theories.

However, in the conversation with the spirit of Socrates, he flatly stated that the Council’s definitions weren’t correct in the first place. He said that learning originates from intellectual work, which clears what covers the Truth through a process of dialogue. Socrates referred to learning as a mission to reveal the Truth of the world that God has created.

Socrates also said that due to the exclusion of the Truth from learning today, people pursue learning just engage in academic work without having an objective for the pursuit. He also harshly criticized modern science and philosophy, asserting that “God” and the “soul” were not something that could be proven, but were prerequisites for learning.

The Abe administration has been stressing the need for moral education, but the spirit of Socrates pointed out that what lies at the root of all morals is philosophy. He went on to say that the objective of philosophy is to seek goodness thoroughly and that morals just explain specifically what is good and bad through the use of a variety of examples.

In short, morals serve as expedients for those who cannot readily accept the world of religious truth, such as the existence of the other world. In addition, he warned that if education were to continue not to include morals, there would be a danger from the powers-that-be. They might choose to use education in order to brainwash people and to control them.

The spirit of Socrates discussed not only the mission of scholars and the ideal of politics but also a wide range of subjects such as his conviction for the Truth when he was on the trial, his relationship with his guardian spirit, Daemon, the world of ideas, and the “practice of dying”.

The spirit of Socrates told us that to recognize human ignorance sounds quite paradoxical, but it’s still an important activity for the people of today. His spiritual message made us keenly realize that the closer we come to the Truth, the more humble we have to be.